Doing a school essay about engine swaps..

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Leonidae

Leonidae

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As some of you might know, I'm on my last year on vocational school, and hopefully will graduate as car mechanic this spring. However, before that I need to do any sort of graduation work, and I chose to find out what kind of things you need to know if you want to swap an engine into a car.. Thus, I chose KP60 Starlet and DIY hybrid engine swap.

The original engine in the Starlet is 1.3l K-series pushrod engine, very commonly used and if you pour enough money into it, even rather perky powerplant. But after seeing few conversions with 2A-GE/2A-GTE producing anything between 100-300 horsepower, I chose the 2A-GE as the powerplant that would go in the car in this theoretical project.

The thing is, that the engine would need to fill the regulations, not only the emissions etc. The power can not be increased over 20%, the displacement can not be increased over 25%, and the weight can not be increased over 10% when compared to most powerful engine in the lineup at the time of production.

This far I've managed to find out, that the K-engine in KP60 produced 74 horses from factory, and few Finnish KP60 enthusiasts who have done the 2A-GE swap, have reached the allowed 20% increase in the power, which is about 99 bhp. Nothing earth-shattering, I know, but it's good power in light car like the KP60. I also did consider increasing the displacement to the allowed 25% limit, which would mean slightly over 1600cc's of displacement, but that would have raised the costs.. Also, the weight differences between the K and 2A are just few kilos, thus, that wouldn't be problem either. If there had been weight differences, the inspection centre could ask me, the theoretical tuner to replace the front suspension, brakes etc with stronger items to counter the increased loads.. but that's not the problem at the moment.

I need to find out how much the GE head weights, in order to calculate if the engine stays within the allowed 10% weight difference. True, the fact that the previous projects done by others have been inspected and approved show that it is possible, but I don't think that the engine weights were measured, the inspection centres just don't have time for that.. So, I thought that I could ask from here, after all, there's few people here who are familiar with 4A-GE. Thanks in advance for the answers..
 
Are you talking about the 2TG? Or the 4AGE?

I know Toyota made a 2A motor but I didn't know anyone actually used it for anything. And I'm sure they didn't make a 2AGTE.
 
That's probably the 2TG. The 4AGE, even the regular "high horse" one, would exceed that 99 hp limit handily... unfortunately.
 
I realise this is about engine swaps but with a Starlet, it is probably more worthwhile putting a bit of money into a 4 or 5K motor than a 2TG. The 2T is quite heavy compared to the K motors and while it has twin cams, the displacement advantage is little, 300cc at the most. 100hp is reasonably easy to reach with the 4K or the 5K without the weight penalty.

Plus as an added bonus, it will never, ever break down.
 
It is about hybrid engine, that combines 2 A-series engine components, 2A block and 4A-GE's DOHC 16 valve cylinder head. These two engines have some parts that can be swapped with each other, such as the afore mentioned cylinder head. It's been done before even in here, but none of the fellows who did it bothered to document it too well. And I chose 2A-GE as powerplant because it weights about the same as the stock K-series engine, while producing more power and having more potential than the pushrod design. Not to mention that A-series engines have tons of more aftermarket support than the 2T/4K pushrod engines, and easier to get a hold of the parts.

Niky, well, the few projects which were built here did achieve about 97 horses in the engine dyno, and inspection centre approved it. of course, the engine got bit more punch as soon as the papers were stamped as official and approved :D
 
Ah... well played, that.

Then my suggestion is a 20V frankenstein... 20V block and box, 2TG tranny, etcetera... use a fuel computer to handicap it on the dyno... and hide a little red button under the dash for those occassions when you want it to make actual power... :lol:
 
well, the problem with 20 valve head is that as far as I know, the bolts and water canals are located differently as far as I know. but I've been thinking that too. and then, there would be the nightmare of measuring the valve clearances of 20 valve head.. :crazy: :eek:
 
Do you think the 4A-FE head might get you in under the limit, instead of the 4A-GE? Yes, it doesn't flow as well, but you've only got 29HP worth of headroom. A couple sidedrafts and a built cam might easily get you to your limit.

I imagine it'd be a bit lighter, but the primary problem is that it's not a performance-minded head, instead meant for efficiency. You might get better low-end power and torque.

Again, You know by now that I'm not an expert in these things, but you can look into it.
 
Mmm.. I'll try to keep few options open.. but pushrods don't belong to them. They're bit too much of fuss for my liking.
 
yes, I know. Seen plenty of those at school. But even if I go for the -FE head, I would need to polish the intake/exhaust canals etc, and that's not cheap either..
 
Read somewhere that the post-'93 ones have a slightly different intake port, might look into that. It's a bit more direct. Also used on the 7A-FE
 
I think you're right. that would mean that I would need different intake manifold as well..:indiff:

unless I go for ITB's and tell the emission guys to go do you know what.. :trouble:

anyway, I found this article.

*click*
 
I could get you the full specs on a Silvertop 20V. I have a large full overhaul manual for the Silvertop 4A, along with an extra head laying around. It would not be hard for me to find a spare 16V head as well if you need the weight on it :p

One of the hybrids I've thought about doing for my my MR2 is a 7A-GE 20Valve. Another hybrid I'll likely end up doing is a 20R + 22R for my Celica, provided I get it running and down to my garage ever :indiff:
 

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